Real, or Not Real...?

The huge and decaying asylum towers above me. A sign that used to hang above the door but has since fallen to the ground says Meepit Oaks Sanitorium for the Psychologically Fragile. No one dares to visit the Asylum; it's rumored to be home to terrible monsters. Well, no one dares except me, of course. I don't really have a reason for coming, maybe just the sense of danger that comes along with visiting the abandoned Asylum. I just love the thrill of it.

In case you were wondering, my name is Eclipse, and I'm a Grey Kacheek. Despite stereotypes, I'm not constantly depressed; in fact, I can't name one time I was. I'm an adventurer, always looking for new places. I've explored the Deserted Tomb of Geraptiku, the Temple of 1000 Tombs in the Lost Desert, I even plan on seeing what is in fact beyond the Brain Tree, but that's for a later date. Today, I visit the Meepit Oaks Sanitorium for the Psychologically Fragile.

Meepit Oaks used to be the best asylum ever known to Neopia, but something happened. The prisoners escaped and started a riot, and the asylum has been abandoned ever since.

A loud thunder, followed by intense lightning, startles me a bit, but breaks me out of my day dream and I slowly open the creaking door that leads inside the asylum. It's pitch-black, so I get a match and light one of the lamps that hang against the walls. The light isn't very bright, but I'll have to make do; I must conserve the matches I have. This seems to be the place where the patients check in. It's littered with papers that seem to be patient files. I grab one that looks interesting. Horace Thumburt it says. The mayor's brother. He must've escaped with the other patients.

The lamp begins to flicker so I look for a candle. I find one and light it with a match. Luckily, it's a lot brighter than the lamp and I have a lot more vision. There are a few doors around the room, but only one is unlocked, so I head through the door. It's just a simple hall, but it has an eerie feeling. There are markings on the walls, but I can't seem to decipher most of them. There's one I see that's quite interesting. As I attempt to decipher it, I hear something walking around my feet. I turn to look, and see a Sklyde that quickly runs away. I turn back to the writing but it has disappeared, so I continue down the hall.

There's a few turns in the hall, and there are several cell doors along the way. The doors are all opened, revealing their horrible living conditions. Continuing down the hall, I see a door and open it. I step into the room and check the desk. I seem to be in an office. The name Lucy is carved into the desk in a beautiful pattern, and a nurse's hat is sitting on the desk. I assume Lucy to be a nurse, but I can't be sure. As an adventurer, I want to know who she was, so I open the desk and find a file on Lucy. My assumption was correct, Lucy was a nurse, the head nurse in fact. I hope she made it out of the asylum alive.

There's also a map of the asylum in the desk that shows me where every room in the asylum is and I see one room that catches my attention. It doesn't seem to be very far from here, so I make it my next destination. I hear some moaning back in the hall, so I head into the next room on the map. According to the paper, I'm in the dining room. It seems safe in here. I find a piece of paper on the floor. It's unintelligible, covered in a strange red liquid I can't identify. I hear footsteps in the office that seem to head towards the door nearby. Being the great adventurer I am, I quickly hide under the table when the door opens.

Footsteps.

I hear... footsteps....

Inside the room.

Naturally, my curiosity gets the better of me, and I peek out from underneath the table. What I see makes me question the current status of my sanity.

It's horrifying to look at it.

The monster towers over the table, with a height I estimate to be six or seven feet. Its eyes are red, most likely bloodshot, and pupils seem to be nonexistent. The monster, despite being quite tall, is extraordinarily thin. For a few moments, I'm caught in the delusion that I could easily defeat the beast. The thought instantly vanishes the second the creature lifts a chair above the table with one hand.

I'm very scared, scared out of my mind. I try and come up with a plan to escape this horrid asylum, but all plans come to a halt when the door I came in by is slammed shut... and locked.

I'm panicking now; I'm locked in the asylum with that creature roaming around. A check outside reveals the monster is gone, but just to be safe I remain under the table, hidden by the tablecloth that covers the entire table. So this is why the asylum is seldom visited, the monster.

Or monsters.

I wonder if there are more of them...

After finally calming down, I begin looking for an item to use as a weapon, but my search soon seems to be in vain.

The monster is the only thing I can think about, its eyes, its skin... the creature looked very much like a zombie.

That must be it; there are zombies in the asylum. And I'm trapped in here with them...

I check my surroundings. There's a door, an open one, about five or six feet from my current location. Crawling out from under the table, I see Spyders roaming around the floors. I stand up and before I know it I'm already through the door. According to my map, I'm in a small hallway. There doesn't seem to be anything in the hallway, but I keep my guard up, just in case.

I hear growling coming from the door on the other side of the door. Desperate for a way out of Meepit Oaks, I open the door. I step inside to find, not an exit, but a strange dog-like creature that is staring directly at me. It slowly walks towards me, but after a few steps it's stopped by its chain.

Behind the dog is a cage, which holds a small hallway with a door. I check my map, and it's the room I was heading to in the first place.

After a while, the creature loses interest in me and falls asleep. I happen to notice that the cage is unlocked, maybe from a past visitor. Taking my chance, I run past the sleeping dog, open the cage, enter the hallway and close the cage. Luckily, the creature, which I can clearly see is a Zomutt, has not awoken from its sleep.

I hope I can make it back out of the cage without the dog waking up...

Slowly, I make my way through the small hallway. I reach the door and find that it's locked. I bang my fist against the door without thinking. I check to see if the Zomutt has awoken, but it's still asleep. I turn to leave, but when I get to the cage, I find that it has somehow been locked...

Frustrated and scared, I lean against the wall and slide into a seated position. The floor is cold and strangely moist. I begin to wonder if I'm just dreaming, and I'm really fast asleep enjoying the comfort of my bed. Maybe, just maybe, I'll wake up and see my family in just a few moments.

Part of me hopes this is a dream, but the other part knows it isn't one.

Suddenly, the rusted door begins to open. To my relief, it's lacking any frightening monsters, only holding a skeleton in a nurse's uniform. I frantically begin searching the room, hoping to find a key that might open the cage that has locked me in, but find nothing.